Busted: Kiev MPs try to fool US senator with ‘proof’ of Russian tanks in Ukraine (PHOTOS)

MPs in Kiev hoodwinked a US senator, presenting his office with photos of columns of Russian military hardware allegedly roaming Ukrainian territory. The photos turned out to have been taken during the conflict in South Ossetia back in 2008.

The photos were “presented to the Armed Services Committee
from a delegation from Ukraine in December,” told The Washington Free Beacon Senator Jim
Inhofe’s communications director Donelle Harder.

The Americans planned to publish the photos with credits to the
Ukrainian MPs, and “they were fine with that,” the
spokesperson said.

“The Ukrainian parliament members who gave us these photos in
print form as if it came directly from a camera really did
themselves a disservice,” Senator Inhofe said in a
statement.

“I was furious to learn one of the photos provided now
appears to be falsified from an AP photo taken in 2008,” the
lawmaker wrote.

At the same time the revealed forgery “doesn’t change the
fact that there is plenty of evidence Russia has made advances
into the country with T-72 tanks and that pro-Russian separatists
have been killing Ukrainians in cold blood,” the US senator
maintains.

The list of members of the Ukrainian delegation that attempted to
fool Senator Jim Inhofe does not include high-ranking Ukrainian
officials, with probably the sole exception of the commander of
the Donbass volunteer battalion Semyon Semenchenko, who visited
Washington demanding arms and training for his servicemen.

The Washington Free Beacon said it “regrets the error,” and
claims it has obtained new “exclusive” photos of “Russian
military forces have been more involved in the arming and
training” of the eastern Ukraine self-defense militia. The
new photos, allegedly “taken between August 24 and September
5 in the midst of a Russian-backed incursion into Eastern Ukraine
… clearly display Russian troops entering Ukraine with advanced
military hardware and weapons.”

Senator Inhofe expressed the hope that the new, particularly
graphic images, could “act as a wake-up call to the Obama
administration and American people” and push the US Congress
to back up Senator Inhofe’s bill to supply the Ukrainians with
American lethal aid.

Having compared Russians with Islamic State (also known as ISIS,
or ISIL), Senator Inhofe said that Ukrainian troops “don’t
have anything to defend themselves against these [Russian]
tanks,” and called on Congress to give “them the equipment and
the weaponry they need.”

“The Obama admin is so slow to recognize” and identify
the problems “taking place around the world,” Inhofe
said. “They just don’t want people to believe these things
are happening,” he acknowledged, adding: “There’s no
better way to do that and draw attention to it than letting
people see these pictures.”

Writer and journalist
John Wight has told RT that the West has to ramp up the
demonization of Russia to influence public opinion.

"There is a policy agenda with regard to Russia, with regard
to NATO expansion, with regard to the expansion of the EU, with
regard to isolating Russia – and everything is tailored to fit
that policy agenda, including the truth. So anything that can be
done to enlist support, the key determining factor of course is
public opinion both in the UK and the US in particular, which has
just had a decade of war. The public is war weary. So they have
to ramp up the demonization of Russia. They have to fabricate
Russia’s intentions and Russia’s actions in order to enlist that
support of public opinion when it comes to possibly intensifying
the conflict, which I fear we are in danger of seeing
happen."